The MacArthur Justice Center filed a lawsuit (pdf) today on behalf of Robert Wilson, a man who spent nine years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The suit was filed against Chicago Police Officers, an Assistant State's Attorney and the City of Chicago today seeking monetary damages.

According to the suit, the officers and the assistant state's attorney conspired at nearly every step of the process to convict Wilson for the crime of attacking a woman, June Siler, with a box cutter despite the fact that there was no evidence connecting him to the crime.

Wilson was charged with attempted murder after officers beat him up, forced him to sign a confession they wrote, falsified evidence, and manipulated the eyewitness into identifying Wilson as her attacker, the suit alleges.

Meanwhile, another man, Jerryco Wagner, went on to attack a number of other women with a box cutter in the weeks following Wilson's arrest and was eventually charged for these attacks. However, Wilson's attorney was barred from introducing evidence about Wagner and the striking similarities between his crimes and Siler's attack during Wilson's trial.

After being convicted, Wilson spent nine years in prison and was finally exonerated in November 2006. Siler has since identified Wagner as her attacker and has apologized to Wilson for her manipulated testimony.